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Introduction
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<H1 CLASS="chapter"><A NAME="htoc1">Chapter&nbsp;1</A>&nbsp;&nbsp;Introduction</H1>
<BR>
<BR>
This manual documents the major ECL<SUP><I>i</I></SUP>PS<SUP><I>e</I></SUP> libraries.
They are enabling tools for the development and delivery
of planning and scheduling applications.
Since this is an area of active research and new developments,
these libraries are subject to technical improvements, addition
of new features and redesign as part of our ongoing work.<BR>
<BR>
In this section we shall briefly summarize the constraint solvers that
are available as ECL<SUP><I>i</I></SUP>PS<SUP><I>e</I></SUP> libraries.
No examples are given here - each solver has its own documentation
with examples for the interested reader.<BR>
<BR>
<UL>
<LI><A HREF="libman003.html">Suspended Goals: <EM>suspend</EM></A>
<LI><A HREF="libman004.html">Finite Domains: <EM>ic</EM></A>
<UL>
<LI><A HREF="libman004.html#toc1"><EM>Integer Domain</EM></A>
<LI><A HREF="libman004.html#toc2">Symbolic Domain: <EM>ic_symbolic</EM></A>
<LI><A HREF="libman004.html#toc3">Global Constraints: <EM>ic_global</EM></A>
<LI><A HREF="libman004.html#toc4">Scheduling Constraints</A>
</UL>
<LI><A HREF="libman005.html">Sets</A>
<LI><A HREF="libman006.html">Intervals</A>
<LI><A HREF="libman007.html">User-Defined Constraints</A>
<UL>
<LI><A HREF="libman007.html#toc5">Generalised Propagation: <EM>propia</EM></A>
<LI><A HREF="libman007.html#toc6">Constraint Handling Rules</A>
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<LI><A HREF="libman008.html">Repair</A>
<LI><A HREF="libman009.html">Linear Constraints</A>
<UL>
<LI><A HREF="libman009.html#toc7">External Linear Solvers: <EM>eplex</EM></A>
<LI><A HREF="libman009.html#toc8"><EM>clpqr</EM></A>
<LI><A HREF="libman009.html#toc9">Piecewise Linear: <EM>eplex_relax</EM></A>
<LI><A HREF="libman009.html#toc10">Probing for Scheduling</A>
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<LI><A HREF="libman010.html">Other Libraries</A>
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<HR WIDTH="50%" SIZE=1><DL CLASS="list"><DT CLASS="dt-list"><A NAME="note1" HREF="libman003.html#text1"><FONT SIZE=5>1</FONT></A><DD CLASS="dd-list">
Note that the global flag <EM>coroutine</EM> has a similar effect:
it causes the arithmetic comparisons as well as many other
built-in predicates to delay until they are sufficiently instantiated
<DT CLASS="dt-list"><A NAME="note2" HREF="libman004.html#text2"><FONT SIZE=5>2</FONT></A><DD CLASS="dd-list">There is also an older implementation, the <EM>fd</EM> library,
whose use is deprecated
<DT CLASS="dt-list"><A NAME="note3" HREF="libman005.html#text3"><FONT SIZE=5>3</FONT></A><DD CLASS="dd-list">
There is also an older implementation, the <EM>conjunto</EM> library, which
is generally less efficient, but implements sets of symbolic elements as
well as integer sets
<DT CLASS="dt-list"><A NAME="note4" HREF="libman006.html#text4"><FONT SIZE=5>4</FONT></A><DD CLASS="dd-list">
The <EM>ic</EM> library replaces the old <EM>ria</EM> interval solver, and
covers most of the functionality of the finite domain solver <EM>fd</EM>
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